Whos Afraid Of Banquos Ghost Essays - Emotions, Fear, Sabretooth

Who's Afraid Of Banquo's Ghost? Fear is perhaps one of the most primal and basic human emotions. In many instances it is because of a reaction to this emotion that humans are able to make crucial decisions to their survival. In the ancestral environment, a proper response to fear or the fight or flight reflex often made the difference between life and death. Those humans foolhardy enough to tease the sabretooth tiger to impress the ladies may have made their point a few times, but quite often they ended up as a tasty meal. Clearly, fear is then an useful thing for evolution to pass along to following generations. Yet modern fear is so much more complex and convoluted than that of ancient man. Even in the times of the middle ages where Macbeth takes place, the subtle compound nature of what people could fear and to what degree is staggering in comparison. At its most basic level, fear is useful because it can help the individual to survive situations by making them aware of inherent risks in their current situation. In the play, fear -or its conspicuous absence- are pivotal in helping to determine how characters are going to behave and what courses of action they will follow. However, due to the more elaborate nature of social roles, the proper course of action is no longer as simple as merely avoiding the sabretooth. In the play, Macbeths fear is particularly noteworthy because of its relation to his state of mind. The more overcome he is by fear, the less stable and more neurotic he becomes. Prior to killing Duncan the vision of a floating dagger begins to unnerve him, particularly when he sees on [the] blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood (Act 2 Scn 1 Ln 46) which he realizes is related to his pending murder of the king. But the apprehension he has fails to make him reconsider his actions and instead serve to cement his resolve to go through with his plan of killing Duncan. Once his decision is made, he wishes that the sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout (Act 2 Scn1 Ln 56-58). Macbeths concern at this point has been somewhat attenuated and indeed subdued well enough to allow him to commit the deed. However, his speech after the fact confirms that he has not accepted the murder completely and now is beginning to have second thoughts about what he has done. Indeed, he is afraid to think what I have done, Look ont again I dare not. (2:2 50-51) What he expresses is not necessarily regret about killing Duncan, but indeed fear at the very strong possibility that it will catch up to him. Fear now has reduced him to inability and throughout his ranting becomes dependent on Lady Macbeth to clean his hands and steer him away from the knocking. She remarks to him Your constancy has left you unattended (2:2 67-68) and has to shepherd him back to their quarters. Curiously, it is Macbeths capacity for fear and to a lesser degree regret over what he has done which makes him ultimately human. He is a flawed villain because he fails to really achieve true wickedness. In her piece General Macbeth, Mary McCarthy disagrees with the notion that Macbeth is wracked with guilt and indeed writes that the perception of him as a conscience-tormented man is a platitude as false as Macbeth himself. Macbeth has no conscience (McCarthy 160). She argues that his main concern is to avoid serious self-recrimination about his past actions and to get a good nights sleep (ibid). While it may sound somewhat cynical to think of the character in this way, it certainly is possible. A lot of the ambivalence in this play comes precisely because of how Macbeth can be construed as being genuinely sorry and remorseful for anything hes done or whether hes merely concerned and upset about what it has cost him. The emotional toll of killing Duncan was very high for him as his reaction showed, and likewise the toll of having Banquo murdered must also have been a large one. Yet the difference here